UH football prices would be Hail Marys

I am in shock over the huge increases in the cost of the 2005 season tickets for University of Hawaii football games.The jump from a cost of $500 annually to $7,000 for two people to watch eight home games is a 1,400 percent increase.

The stadium has not seen a capacity crowd of 50,000 people at UH football games for a long time. By raising the ticket prices, how can it expect to fill even half of the seats? Prices at the food booths keep going up and, if ticket prices are raised as proposed, the athletic department will defeat its purpose of increasing attendance at the games.

Those of us who have been faithful through good and bad seasons should be given some courtesy and understanding. None of us would mind a reasonable increase in ticket prices. Why not raise the prices in the loge areas to $500 per season for one person -- $62.50 per game? That's twice the cost of the previous loge tickets, but is a cost that most of us might be willing to endure.

If the athletic department -- via the Anuenue booster club -- succeeds in raising season tickets to $7,000 for a couple, the individual cost to attend one game, based on a season of eight home games, would be $437.50.

We all have to ask ourselves if that cost is reasonable enough to continue as season ticket holders.

Don't make transit a partisan issue

When did rail transit become a partisan issue? Instead of claiming that the Republican-controlled Congress will not support Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case in their request for federal matching funds, reader Jim Henshaw (Letters, Feb. 14) should instead be writing to the Republican committee heads and informing them of how desperately Oahu needs a fixed-rail system.

If the counties receive taxing authority and federal funding materializes, he can then monitor the actions of our City Council to ensure that the money gets "on the tracks."

If rail fails, people in other areas can expect traffic-gridlocked Central and Leeward Oahu residents to demand a housing moratorium from Mililani to Ko Olina and to lobby instead for new housing to be developed from Kahala to Kailua. What goes around comes around. Aloha, Mr. Henshaw, from a Bush Republican.

Worker's comp law favors business

Regarding Rep. Colleen Meyer's Feb. 6 letter claiming the state's powerful employee unions have a monopoly over the Legislature and remained the most powerful lobbying force in the state for decades:

If that were true, the Legislature wouldn't have passed a worker compensation insurance law that created an insurance company owned by employers that would investigate employees' injury claims. This bill favors business, as they -- through the Hawaii Employers Mutual Insurance Company -- deny legitimate claims of workers injured on the job.

Back in 1916 the first worker's compensation law passed to stem the tide of lawsuits against employers. Basically, in exchange for limited liability, employers were willing to promptly pay the injured worker who would give up a jury trial and accept a smaller settlement.

But today when injured workers bring claims against an employer, the HEMIC agent investigating this claim works for or is beholden to this same employer. Since the function of business is profit and paying injured workers' claims cuts into profits, allowing the employer or his agent to decide if a worker's claim is legitimate sure looks like a conflict of interest, similar to a fox guarding the chicken coop.

Raising excise tax might be necessary

While it remains true that Hawaii is a highly taxed state, residents should be more than willing to compensate for the luxury of living in Hawaii.

We have not received an increase in our excise tax for years. We can't expect our city or state government to meet our increased demand for services without some sort of compensation.

We will never be individually satisfied with any core of government. However, our day-to-day needs such as water, sewer, electricity and communications still need to be met, and the bottom line is: We can't go on demanding that the city and/or state continue to do more with less. We all need to sacrifice somewhat and should be willing to pay for it if necessary.

It's nice to have a lot of promises made, but unless the respective agencies can deliver, we will all watch our standard of living continue to deteriorate. We must be willing to pay a fair price for what we receive. If we need to raise the excise tax, then do so and we should not complain.

Male bus riders have bad manners

In the past week, I took TheBus for the first time. Each time, I got off TheBus disgusted. The buses were on time, clean and safe. I was disgusted because of the number of teens and men who did not voluntarily give up their seats on the crowded buses to women or elderly riders. Some did, but the majority never offered.

Is chivalry dead? Are fathers not teaching their children to respect and honor women and the elderly? Even a man who has labored all day should gladly give up his seat to a female or senior citizen, every time, period.

Bottle bill actually discourages recycling

Last Sunday I briefly attended three Superbowl parties in different parts of Oahu. At all three, beer bottles and soda cans were being discarded in trash cans. When I commented unfavorably about the failure to recycle, the answers were almost all the same. "If you want to make a special trip, and stand in line for an hour or even more for a couple of bucks, be our guest."

The sad thing is that these are folks who would be happy to curbside recycle or return bottles to the store. But the bottles go to the landfill, my friends pay an extra 5 cents tax per beverage, and the state pockets the money. Why is it that I can't help thinking that maybe this was the intent all along?